According to Steam the game has been released. According to the official website, it has not. And it really hasn't. It's a beta. The UI is a clusterf***k. It doesn't scale up with resolution well. You can't even pick a planet from a planet list. Everything is tiny. It's very hard to pick ships, because you can barely see them if you zoom out. The tutorial consists of few videos and bunchAccording to Steam the game has been released. According to the official website, it has not. And it really hasn't. It's a beta. The UI is a clusterf***k. It doesn't scale up with resolution well. You can't even pick a planet from a planet list. Everything is tiny. It's very hard to pick ships, because you can barely see them if you zoom out. The tutorial consists of few videos and bunch of text. I have to say music and art design of alien races are the most memorable part of this game. Everything else is unpolished, forgettable or just meh, because it's unfinished game. However, that's a huge achievement for a single guy developing the game. But is it worth $29? No. Maybe 6 months down the road, when it gets patched.…Collapse

I had to create a profile so I could review this game amidst the obvious rating bombing this game is getting for positive reviews it doesnt deserve.

The game suffers from FAR too much micromangagement, bad user interface to make it happen, bad pacing, and the problem of attempting a realistic space sim but losing playability in the process.
I have played all the classics, I am theI had to create a profile so I could review this game amidst the obvious rating bombing this game is getting for positive reviews it doesnt deserve.

The game suffers from FAR too much micromangagement, bad user interface to make it happen, bad pacing, and the problem of attempting a realistic space sim but losing playability in the process.

I have played all the classics, I am the target audience, and I found this game terrible. For reference I have completed games of Space empires, and that is about as hardcore as it gets for 4x games. One of the biggest problems of this game is the scale, and the scroll speed, the fact you constantly have to bounce between system and 'galaxy' view but at a slow rate. To explain, consider a game like master of orion, it took place in a galaxy view, you saw all your stars, and it was clear, you could click on a star and it went INSTANTLY to system view, you saw planets, and could click on it. This game is nightmarish, it it almost a literal size ration of a system to a small section of a galaxy, meaning you have to zoom out...zoom out...oh theres one planet...zoom out...30 seconds later you FINALLY can see the stars. It is literally this bad.

I understand the game was going for this cool thing where your ships are flying around the system from different sides, dropping in from warp...but it is just so hard to control meaningfully. Systems are HUGE and ships are nearly life size...meaning invisible. No big icons at all. Multiple times I clicked on the ships icon and could not find my ship despite being in the middle of the screen. The stars that are part of the background are not obviously different from system stars, so it was annoying trying to find actual systems.

So beyond the massive scaling problem (and terrible scroll speed) the pacing is bad. It is real time, but basically the only way to really play is a 'turn based' style of pausing, issuing orders, playing at 4x speed until new orders...pause...repeat. What I hate is how slow your ships move in a system, again it was as if he was going for a realistic sim, at the heavy cost of gameplay.

The user interface for ships and colonies is terrible. You can have a list of colonies (good) but not actually click on them to go to them (very bad) I mean how obvious of a feature was this to include? Every space game I've played from the 90s on let you click from a list to actually GO TO the planet.

Last...ship design. It is not good. You have a whole bunch of squares, and you throw stuff in it (imagine space empires if you played it) but the problem is you have a LOT of stuff to throw in, and very little difference. You have a gun that does 15 damage and cost 500 or a gun that does 14 damage and cost 460 and does the exact same effect, woah such depth. You have the annoyance of placing power plants and then connecting wiring to all your stuff. If I wanted to be WIRING my ships I would have gone into engineering. There is no auto complete, and whats worse is there are certain areas that you cant place stuff in. Ship design in normally fun, or at least not a chore, it is very very annoying in this game. There is not a good info screen or anything either to decide if your ship is even good or has good stats.

In closing there are some things that need improving like scroll speed, but that is a little thing that could get patched, but real things like the far too complex ship design, VERY bad pacing, very bad scaling of ships to systems to stars, and generally not fun because it isnt clear what is even happening makes this a game not recommendable, and this is from someone thats played a lot of them.…Expand

The amazing numbers of positive reviews have forced me to write a review of this game.

This game is priced like a game coming from a decent studio, and sadly it was released like a game coming from a major studio. What I mean is that the game is still in a beta stage, and it appears to be an early beta at that.
I understand the game is being designed by a really small team (maybe 1The amazing numbers of positive reviews have forced me to write a review of this game.

This game is priced like a game coming from a decent studio, and sadly it was released like a game coming from a major studio. What I mean is that the game is still in a beta stage, and it appears to be an early beta at that.

I understand the game is being designed by a really small team (maybe 1 guy) but that doesn't excuse charging $30 for a game that can not be played. I have tried putting in roughly 6 hours since the "launch" about 18 hours ago. The "launch" consisted of an updated from 1.07 to 1.07b I'm honestly not sure what the update did. The game crashes for me on startup, at race selection, when I zoom out to fast, when I try to colonize a planet the list continues.

I have started about 10 games, the longest game I have been able to play was roughly 2 hours. This game has done what every major studio has done that has caused me to despise them. It made a promise of a great game, and delivered a beta. If I had been offered a demo I would have tried it and known not to buy this game.

Wait 6 months then go check the forums to figure out if this game has been fixed yet. Or better yet, send the developer an email and let him know you want a demo before you buy it given how this release has been.

Given this was an indie title I would have been willing to overlook so many things, but if the bug forum is still bursting at the seams with people unable to play then clearly your game is not ready it is likely not even out of alpha tbh...

Zero (the developer) releasing this game in this state screams of a cash grab to me. I would not be surprised if in 6 months this game is still unfinished and patches have become few and far between ...

Ok, so all that being said, what's good? The ship building is really cool all the other stuff you expect from a 4x game has been simplified to make the game "real time". Basically each turn takes 5 real time seconds, but you can pause the game at any time to issue orders or do whatever else. This makes the game feel conflicted to me. Sure, it might trim down the amount of time it takes to finish a game compared to GalCiv or Master of Orion, but the experience is equally diminished. I expect that if this game is ever finished serious 4x fans might get maybe 10-20 hours out of the game before getting bored and returning to the classics. RTS fans may do the same thing, but will eventually return to Sins of a Solar Empire.

If this game had been released complete I would have rated it in the 5-7 range, but if a game is released as a finished product when it is, in fact, still in beta I have to give the game a 0. That is clearly false advertising and a cash grab by the developer & publisher...…Expand

I have been playing this game since it was in beta and it is STILL in beta. Some aspects are a lot of fun. Designing your ship is cool and the combat can be interesting to watch. Despite that, the game is absolutely not complete. If you venture over to the forums you will see the devs asking people to review this game on Metacritic. That isn't necessarily a bad thing in of itself, butI have been playing this game since it was in beta and it is STILL in beta. Some aspects are a lot of fun. Designing your ship is cool and the combat can be interesting to watch. Despite that, the game is absolutely not complete. If you venture over to the forums you will see the devs asking people to review this game on Metacritic. That isn't necessarily a bad thing in of itself, but there is a reason this has so many reviews and so many of them are positive. There is an active and engaged community on the forums.

Seriously do not buy this game yet. It has tons of potential, but right now it is an absolute waste of money.…Expand

I have no idea why so many people rate the game so high. It does look shady when an indie title get more reviews than top AAA titles by huge companies that spend millions of dollars for promotion. Just by reading the comments one can easily see that those reviews are written by the long time game followers and beta participants and it is the fanboy's zeal and not the high quality of theI have no idea why so many people rate the game so high. It does look shady when an indie title get more reviews than top AAA titles by huge companies that spend millions of dollars for promotion. Just by reading the comments one can easily see that those reviews are written by the long time game followers and beta participants and it is the fanboy's zeal and not the high quality of the product that causes all those prises. To be honest there is not much to prise. By reading those comments I learned that the game was made by one or two guys and it is really impressive...but they charge for their product like it was made by a professional studio so there is no reason why this game should not be reviewed in line with other 4x games out there. But sadly it does not stand a chance in comparison to contemporary rulers of space 4X genre like Sins of Solar Empire or Endless Space. I do have a problem to understand who is this game actually for? It is not aimed on the hardcore 4x fans, because for those it will be waaaaay oversimplified in every single of its 4X aspects. It does no come close to the "epicness" of SoSE space battles, it does not give you any actual control over the fleet during combat, the resources management is shallow like a puddle after morning drizzle limiting the game to 3 sliders..., the colony building aspect is a lackluster copy-paste of GalCiv approach. Tech tree is short and uninspiring. On top of that the game get some random fps-slowdowns and is prone to crashes. Veterans of 4X space games will be bored after 15 minutes with this game. The only innovative thing here is the approach to the race's diversity which is really solidly done and does not end at the different perks sets for every race but seems to expand to the different AI algorithms. All others 4X concepts are really poorly executed and the game itself is in the best case a younger brother of MoO serie and them alike titles, suitable rather for my kid than for me. Assuming that it will be patched and stops crashing that is.…Expand

I can't figure out how the heck to play this game, it just drops you in the middle with no tutorial. The game also doesn't work with Windows High DPI settings which I use so I can read text from my couch on my home theater PC. I turned down my DPI to normal and changed the game resolution to 720P, but I couldn't t figure out what on earth I was supposed to do. I understand this is anI can't figure out how the heck to play this game, it just drops you in the middle with no tutorial. The game also doesn't work with Windows High DPI settings which I use so I can read text from my couch on my home theater PC. I turned down my DPI to normal and changed the game resolution to 720P, but I couldn't t figure out what on earth I was supposed to do. I understand this is an indie game but either mamke it intuitive or drop new games into a skippable tutorial. I can't believe I paid good money for such a horribly designed game.…Expand

It was promising what had been promised, but what promises had been there, have been broken.

The developer of this game admitted the engine in use is broken and so, it will never get finished.
Any word on the forum, being even slightly critical about his decision to move on and start another project, is being deleted.
The game is a blast to play, but sadly it is never going to beIt was promising what had been promised, but what promises had been there, have been broken.

The developer of this game admitted the engine in use is broken and so, it will never get finished.
Any word on the forum, being even slightly critical about his decision to move on and start another project, is being deleted.

The game is a blast to play, but sadly it is never going to be anything but an abandoned alpha version sold completly overprized.…Expand

I had to give it a Zero. The game had great potential, but development has stopped completely now that ZeroSum has "made enough money to move onto other projects". The small development team has been the excuse for slow development, and empty promises were repeatedly made, but its officially been canned by the developer and he's even stated that a discount or free copy of the sequel forI had to give it a Zero. The game had great potential, but development has stopped completely now that ZeroSum has "made enough money to move onto other projects". The small development team has been the excuse for slow development, and empty promises were repeatedly made, but its officially been canned by the developer and he's even stated that a discount or free copy of the sequel for people who purchased the broken unfinished original will in no way be an option. Have a problem w/it? don't post on his forums, he'll just delete it and ban you but hey he warns you up front that he will and says you should just log out of his forum and never come back.
VaporWare that should be avoided, and previous ratings should be revisited and re evaluated. Poor game is dead.…Expand

The good:
1. Building is made rather fun, with a steady pace of economics and nice system that can dispense wealth and resources to your worlds.
2. The graphics are quite nice.
3. The RTS part is done well enough, the pace is not too fast, not too slow.
The bad:
1. Technologies aren't varied or imaginative. They'reI really have mixed feelings about this. Ok, here we go.

The good:

1. Building is made rather fun, with a steady pace of economics and nice system that can dispense wealth and resources to your worlds.
2. The graphics are quite nice.
3. The RTS part is done well enough, the pace is not too fast, not too slow.

The bad:

1. Technologies aren't varied or imaginative. They're simple and there's too little of them for a proper 4x game.
2. Map controls are bad every time I zoom out or load the game the zoom focuses on some dust speck in space, and I have to click around to actually notice any star systems even when I click in the right place on the minimap. It's mildly annoying.
3. Ship design system is the worst I have seen in ANY 4x game. It's bad. It's awful. It's atrocious. It's positively tedious, feels like you're sitting in work in your cubicle and have to finish a project. You can't save a design which has even one field not filled. And later designs have HUNDREDS of them. You can't modify or upgrade designs? Actually, ANY 4x game had a better system. Master of Orion 1-2, Sword of the Stars, Endless Space, Gratuitous Space Battles, etc. etc. etc. This... thing... spoils a reasonably nice game immensely. If this was improved, I'd give the game a solid 8.

I mean, if a serious part of the game has less fun than counting finances in Excel, that's wrong, dude.…Expand

Ive been watching this game since pre-release, and must admit there is ALOT of potential here, love the ship design feature and the diplomacy windows are very well done.
However the game is still in beta.
SO many bugs and issues that are yet to be resolved. I experience frequent crashes, and whenever i feel brave enough toI simply MUST respond to what is blatant rating bombing.

Ive been watching this game since pre-release, and must admit there is ALOT of potential here, love the ship design feature and the diplomacy windows are very well done.

However the game is still in beta.

SO many bugs and issues that are yet to be resolved. I experience frequent crashes, and whenever i feel brave enough to start a new game, i end up giving up within 1-2 hours due to all the remaining frustrating bugs and issues IF I dont CTD first.

As I said, lotsa potential, but its an unfinished and I would argue UNPLAYABLE game.…Expand

I really wanted to love this game. It had the potential to be a great game. However, my poor rating is based on the fact that it is beta software with significant bugs and missing features and the fact that these are now not likely to ever be fixed. If you read the game's forum, it appears the developer is working on a new version of the game which would have to be purchased again,I really wanted to love this game. It had the potential to be a great game. However, my poor rating is based on the fact that it is beta software with significant bugs and missing features and the fact that these are now not likely to ever be fixed. If you read the game's forum, it appears the developer is working on a new version of the game which would have to be purchased again, and does not appear to believe completing the current version of the game is a priority.

Meanwhile, the game continues to available for sale, and at a significant price point. To me, the whole development process indicates that, at best, the developer lacks focus. I would avoid this game in its current state (check out the discussions on the forum to see the issues for yourself).…Expand

This game had potential. I really do wish it worked out as it is so beautiful; but alas the game is so unintuitive and riddled with bugs that I regret wasting my money on it. When compared to a similar title, such as distant worlds it just doesn't hold up.

Game is incomplete, and the developer has said he's spending most of his time porting the game over to a new project based on the game that buyers of this one would have to pay again for. DO NOT BUY. It's a sad case of an indie developer taking the money, calling the game "complete" and running.

Honestly this game, is the reason i vowed never to purchase any indie games in alpha/beta mode. Never buy a game on its potential, because what do you get for buying it unfinished? Nothing except the risk of a bad game that never delivers, that's why from now on I'm waiting till release, so i don't buy broken promises.

If you want tangible reasons not to buy this game then, firstly theHonestly this game, is the reason i vowed never to purchase any indie games in alpha/beta mode. Never buy a game on its potential, because what do you get for buying it unfinished? Nothing except the risk of a bad game that never delivers, that's why from now on I'm waiting till release, so i don't buy broken promises.

If you want tangible reasons not to buy this game then, firstly the game was unfinished at release, ships were missing, the game crashes often, freighters don't work properly, multiplayer wasn't implemented as promised and the developer looks like he has pretty much given up on this game and letting community modders fix his unfinished problems. Which are the people who have posted all the great reviews here for the game...

I've seen this game go on sale multiple times shortly after "release" when it was still marred with bugs and problems, sorry to say it looked like a quick money grab. Which is made worse by the fact that any critical threads warning people about the game get deleted, further proving the point.

I was banned from the steam community discussion of this game because i expressed my opinion that this game wasn't worth the price...

Would i recommend this game to anyone? No.
Simply because i feel conned for buying this game, user comments are deleted which are critical of the game... Sorry that's the last straw for me.…Expand

This is a game that I really wanted to be good. It has a lot of good features but the bugs make it almost impossible to enjoy. The game lag gets so bad towards end game it becomes unplayable. Game ending crashing if battles get to big. This is not a finished product.

Yes, StarDrive is beautiful... the graphics aren't academy award winning, yet compelling, and yes, breath taking to some degree. However if you are going to try and be the next guy to try and take a stab at writing the next MoO4 do it with some effort, don't toss in a scant few tech trees and leave the storyline half finished with enough plot holes to sink the Titanic!

Considering thatYes, StarDrive is beautiful... the graphics aren't academy award winning, yet compelling, and yes, breath taking to some degree. However if you are going to try and be the next guy to try and take a stab at writing the next MoO4 do it with some effort, don't toss in a scant few tech trees and leave the storyline half finished with enough plot holes to sink the Titanic!

Considering that it's painfully obvious the developer was trying to be THAT guy who created a true MoO4, yeah, I was less than impressed. The tech trees are NOT finished, that and I'm clueless to the significance of the later story line (I wouldn't even contemplate spoiling it... seriously, a three year old could do that for you.) I mean, some of the tech even pointed to future advances, yet.... I bought a game which sort of c*ck blocked me tech wise. That as far as I can tell all of the races really have the same tech potential.... just stupid looking ships (unless you played as Human, we rock.)

I can't move on yet, I should gripe and grumble about how annoying planetary assaults are and how useless the transport ships seem to be, however.... the tech! You see... this is 2013, almost 2014... if you are going to have tech you better have a lot of it. I mean, I think of the tech in this game and two thoughts come to mind... number 1, I miss MoO2 all of a sudden, and number 2? Meh, soggy cereal meh. I need Viagra meh. I and probably quite a few die hard MoO fans probably expected a better showing of tech considering that graphically and mechanically StarDrive is as damned close to the play style of MoO, and yet.... someone dropped the ball.

Me is an alien! You kill me... now you get.... some poop tech and that's it.

Yeah, so far two or three tech advances from an alien race that is like the Borg on crack, meth and gods know what else... you'd think there would be more, but, nah. 90% of that alien race apparently operated on generic pixie dust or something. And is it me... or is tech thus far really the problem, or lack of tech thereof? The spy tech is really short, like mini-me short. Ugh... tech problems, must keep writing yet getting bored!

Let's take a breather.... the map crashed way too much, I have yet to find an option to delete save files and for some odd reason all new games carry old ship designs to new games when appropriate ship tech is researched, which ends up being a massive mess... worse? I at least can't find an option to delete ship designs, so yeah, you end up with too many designs. And OH MY GODS! That largest ship.... it takes me at least an HOUR to place weapons and such in those REALLY small boxes on that ENORMOUSLY LARGE ship! I'm not even exaggerating! My eyes were nearly bleeding afterward...

Okay, yeah.... that ship editor, dem boxes. Dat whole hour... and realizing time passed you by and the game has all of a sudden given you a MAJOR headache. Death by ship design! Now, let's discuss artifacts.... discussion done. You can win without them, in fact... aside from being a bit annoying to acquire, they are nothing more than well... I dunno, honestly I never had any will power to mess with them... pretty much man handled every race in a maxed race game, took a dump on them during diplomacy and shoved my warships down their throats. So... artifacts, yeah.

As for the planets, well... they also seemed to need more tech, in fact I sort of wish the planet scape wasn't so small... I mean, no matter how large the planet you still always have the same amount of map space, which itself well... somehow represents an entire planet of people. I'm guessing the developer is the dude who thought our planet was square back in the day, cause the planets in this game are very square, sort of. On the space map, we see planets! But on the management screen, squares, MORE friggin squares! Arg...

Okay, I know... you want some positivity dontcha? The Terran ships looks cool, that and apparently the dev loves Cthu'lhu, and who doesn't? The game mechanics are actually simple after you spend a hour or two playing, you do have to balance research and trade... but...

The ship design system is... painful. Yes, it is comprehensive, but the largest ship can mess up your eyes (eye strain). The tech is limp, sorry, but it is. The aliens are sociopaths... their hot and their cold, yes and then no.... you get the idea.

"Oh mergerd you landered on the planet I wanted firsted!"

Seriously, as if I knew... and then I made them my.... expletive. Final words, no, I'm not going to rate this anything more than a 4, and that's me being a nice guy. I'm not saying the game is dog turd, but it ain't entirely MoO either. Game like this will never improve until consumers as a whole bring out their beat sticks and spank some dev butt.... as for StarDrive? Meh.…Expand

[quote="Zero"][quote="Murundi"]Hmmmm, strange.... I seem to remember someone, somewhere saying that it was IMPOSSIBLE to fix the OOM errors. How odd, the great and mighty can make mistakes? I must have imagined it.[/quote]

So what's the point of this comment? It's just trolling. I put in some serious homework time to try and fix this OOM error and I get for it? What do you want[quote="Zero"][quote="Murundi"]Hmmmm, strange.... I seem to remember someone, somewhere saying that it was IMPOSSIBLE to fix the OOM errors. How odd, the great and mighty can make mistakes? I must have imagined it.[/quote]

So what's the point of this comment? It's just trolling. I put in some serious homework time to try and fix this OOM error and I get for it? What do you want from me?[/quote]

This sums up what you will get into if you purchase this game. The Developer gets enraged when called on either lies, or if not lies, then conclusions that he has come too that may or may not be fact. He says something, dismisses it, goes onto something new, then is shown that it maybe is possible if you just look at it in a different more experienced way.... since you are brand new to this Job and doing it all by yourself you should know that you may just not know everything.

Saying things are impossible, then retracting because everyone is having OOM issues with a game that has been deemed "finished product" because you are "Happy" with it. I don't think you are "Happy" with it, I think you realize that you have been caught 2x saying something now and then flip flopping on it because you know it is a concern of more than just a "Vocal Minority".

Fix your first game so it is playable before you start construction on your second game, period.…Expand

Do yourself a favor and stay far far away from this pile of garbage. Please understand me when I say I am absolutely not the type to give games a zero score out of spite. In this case, however, StarDrive deserves nothing more. The developer is known to have blatantly abandoned development before actually completing the game (but not before making obscene amounts of money from earlyDo yourself a favor and stay far far away from this pile of garbage. Please understand me when I say I am absolutely not the type to give games a zero score out of spite. In this case, however, StarDrive deserves nothing more. The developer is known to have blatantly abandoned development before actually completing the game (but not before making obscene amounts of money from early adopters who made the mistake of expecting to one day have a completed game). What little the developer has said on the matter seems to suggest that the issue is general incompetence in terms of game-design resources. In other words, he's hit some brick walls in the development process and doesn't know how to progress beyond them. Many customers who paid full price were lured in with various promises from the developer of multiplayer and a bunch of other features which were dropped. Even that wouldn't necessarily be a show-stopper if the game could actually be played from start to finish under most circumstances. As things stand now, if the "out of memory" errors don't get you, the glaring holes in crucial game-play elements will. What the developer has done in this case is nothing short of completely unscrupulous.

Being as he abandoned StarDrive, you may be glad to know that he's now decided to call StarDrive "StarDrive Vanilla" whilst he develops a remake on an alternate engine. He has stated that the snubbed adopters of so-called "StarDrive Vanilla" are welcome to purchase the remake (at full price of course barf).

Actually, instead of simply avoiding StarDrive, you might want to also avoid any titles produced by ZeroSum Games and Iceberg Interactive. The fiasco that is StarDrive has revealed that both the developer and publisher are not at all concerned with the sentiment inferred by this review, which is ***EXTREMELY*** wide-spread, I assure you (check the Steam forums for this game if Zero hasn't deleted the relevant posts, that is).

Only consider purchasing this most-of-a-game if you have no intention of ever seeing it in a completed state. Also, be prepared to encounter game-killing bugs, a complete and utter lack of any gameplay elements which go even slightly beyond the absolute bare-minimum, and a developer who not only openly declares himself "unconcerned" with customers' (quite valid) problems, but actually goes out of his way to publicly censor or scorn anyone who dares bring any such things up.

***IMPORTANT***
Do not believe the people making recent posts about how the game is being "updated on a daily basis" or anyone who says it's being worked on at all. This has been discussed to death on the Steam & official forums... The game has been abandoned by the developer. Anyone saying otherwise is LYING. Case in point, "ProfessionalGuy". He posted this very day, talking about how the game is constantly being improved & updated "almost on a daily basis". This is simply not true. There has not been any meaningful update in... I can't even remember when the last *REAL* update was made/distributed.

I didn't believe it until now, but there were rumors about how supposedly fake posters were going around submitting favorable reviews for this game on various rating sites... Well now I believe this to be 100% true, because I can think of no reason which adequately explains ProfessionalGuy's review (specifically the score of 10 and the statement that the game's development is active and not in fact abandoned). It's not just him either. There are many such review all over the internet which are flat-out lies. Don't believe it. Do not give ZeroSum Games or Iceberg Interactive any more money.…Expand

This game had potential but the end game gets boring and there must be some memory problems because my new laptop can hardly run it near the end of the game. This game should be listed as an early release. However, it appears the developer abandoned it after promising for months to keep working on the game.

At first I thought it was a Remake of Star Con 3, but after playing it and paying for it id rather play the original star con series any day. Its sad when a remake of a 15 year old game is crappy in story, game play is a dull mash of weapon spray... Dialogue and creative design for the characters and types of aliens is poor, starship customization is probably the best feature of this gameAt first I thought it was a Remake of Star Con 3, but after playing it and paying for it id rather play the original star con series any day. Its sad when a remake of a 15 year old game is crappy in story, game play is a dull mash of weapon spray... Dialogue and creative design for the characters and types of aliens is poor, starship customization is probably the best feature of this game but all in all I would rather have my money back than own this game.…Expand

DO NOT GET THIS GAME. I paid full retail and the Dev just gave up and wont even give the second one for those who supported the first. The forums are HEAVILY moderated by The Doctor and the Dev lied SO much during this interview its amazing. Nothing he said was true. He promised multiplayer but deleted all references to that promise to save his own skin. I had bought the game during theDO NOT GET THIS GAME. I paid full retail and the Dev just gave up and wont even give the second one for those who supported the first. The forums are HEAVILY moderated by The Doctor and the Dev lied SO much during this interview its amazing. Nothing he said was true. He promised multiplayer but deleted all references to that promise to save his own skin. I had bought the game during the alpha and its amazing how the Dev twisted his own words and promises to walk away with the money of so many people. If multiple people are saying this (Which they are) its not just someone being angry or trolling, its the truth. Stay away from this game and this developer. Support other trustworthy third parties who are making similar games or simply buy a finished product of this genre from a company with ethics and whom supports their customers unlike this unethical developer and his team of tyrannical forum moderators. The only reason someone would give a good score was because it was done before the recent drop of the first game by the Dev.…Expand

This game could have been awesome. Instead, the developer half-baked this game, took the money and ran off to build a sequel with even less content. The game remains unoptimized for even the best computers, has numerous computer-crashing bugs/glitches, and an unfinished quest line.

Like many early access games, this one failed to deliver what it promised.

PAID REVIEWERS> Go check all the high scores. See that 95% of them are done on Apr 26th. The release date. Do you often play a game and go review it the very same day? Do you think every single person who liked the game said "Hey, I'm going to go review this game RIGHT NOW because I JUST bought it and owned it for all of an hour or two but I have to rush off and review it. Literally, whenPAID REVIEWERS> Go check all the high scores. See that 95% of them are done on Apr 26th. The release date. Do you often play a game and go review it the very same day? Do you think every single person who liked the game said "Hey, I'm going to go review this game RIGHT NOW because I JUST bought it and owned it for all of an hour or two but I have to rush off and review it. Literally, when it's THIS OBVIOUS you have paid reviewers to review your game right on release date. Go look it up. Pick one at random, it will be release date Apr 26th. If you complain or ask questions on Steam forums, you will get banned and attacked by the forum moderator. AND NOW he is releasing star drive 2, which is another game he will sell on Steam and NOT FINISH.…Expand

Represents the bad side of indie development/early access etc. Dev takes everyone's money, and then decides to make a new game before the original is feature-complete or even remotely fixed. He then plays the victim when the community calls him out on his BS as he silences everyone who disagrees and even deletes his own promise-filled posts from the past.

I don't think any of theseRepresents the bad side of indie development/early access etc. Dev takes everyone's money, and then decides to make a new game before the original is feature-complete or even remotely fixed. He then plays the victim when the community calls him out on his BS as he silences everyone who disagrees and even deletes his own promise-filled posts from the past.

I don't think any of these people go into a project intending to rip everyone off, they are just in over their heads and a large-scale scam is the result. Please avoid Stardrive 2, these type of unscrupulous people are just as cancerous to gaming as are companies like EA - just on a smaller scale.…Expand

Really, I just couldn't stand the game. It was almost an exact copy of Star Ruler, but it was worse. The UI was a bit dull and boring, and at times caused me to accidently click or unclick things and have to redo stuff. 5 hours in a normal game and I still couldn't really do anything at all. Meh, I just can't find a single good thing to say about the game, other than a slightly uniqueReally, I just couldn't stand the game. It was almost an exact copy of Star Ruler, but it was worse. The UI was a bit dull and boring, and at times caused me to accidently click or unclick things and have to redo stuff. 5 hours in a normal game and I still couldn't really do anything at all. Meh, I just can't find a single good thing to say about the game, other than a slightly unique diplomacy system.…Expand

Trite, shallow and derivative. On anything but the easiest settings the AI simply swarms you the moment you try to expand or colonize at all with massive rushes of ships boasting heavily researched weapons, while also managing lots of successful colonies. Any two of those may be somewhat possible, definitely not all three at once. I had expected quite a bit more perhaps something otherTrite, shallow and derivative. On anything but the easiest settings the AI simply swarms you the moment you try to expand or colonize at all with massive rushes of ships boasting heavily researched weapons, while also managing lots of successful colonies. Any two of those may be somewhat possible, definitely not all three at once. I had expected quite a bit more perhaps something other than mindless pop-rushing of batches of ships. A bit of strategy and management would be nice. As far as I can tell, it's a 1x strategy game, not a 4x, unless you manage to trick the computer into letting you survive until late game, when management becomes something of an issue.…Expand

This game, with out question, is some of the most unmitigated garbage I have ever had the displeasure of purchasing. The game itself is brutally buggy, with above average BSOD rates, and numerous crashes. A considerable amount of players are simply unable to even start the game without confusing fixes, or mods. The game itself is flat and uninteresting, with little difference between theThis game, with out question, is some of the most unmitigated garbage I have ever had the displeasure of purchasing. The game itself is brutally buggy, with above average BSOD rates, and numerous crashes. A considerable amount of players are simply unable to even start the game without confusing fixes, or mods. The game itself is flat and uninteresting, with little difference between the races, and NO difference between how they react to you. The AI itself can only be described as "Game Ruining." It is intensely brutal, and utterly unforgiving in the most unpleasant way. (It also doesn't have to use the game's horrific GUI and exceedingly tedious ship design mechanics).

The ONLY saving grace of this game is the modding community, and a plethora of rabid, active fans who are eager to apologize for their dev putting out trash, and selling it for 30$.

The game as it exists currently, and for the forseeable future, is a scam on the level of Legends of Pegasus and Sword of the Stars 2.

There is a framework for a great game in StarDrive, but that framework has lingered for over a year of development and testing that has gone nowhere. Content is barebones three weeks after release there is ONE boring victory condition, an AI thatThe game as it exists currently, and for the forseeable future, is a scam on the level of Legends of Pegasus and Sword of the Stars 2.

There is a framework for a great game in StarDrive, but that framework has lingered for over a year of development and testing that has gone nowhere. Content is barebones three weeks after release there is ONE boring victory condition, an AI that struggles to provide any meaningful challenge, and multiplayer is nowhere on the horizon. The project lead and primary programmer spends his time on the internet emulating Derek Smart, attacking reviewers who mention the horrendous stability and low content of the game, rather than fixing it. It has been over a year since he has talked publically about his intentions for the game questions about the multiplayer go unanswered, and old brain-storming ideas are ambiguously repeated as potentials.

I am not scoring this game 0 in some effort to lower the grossly inflated user score I am scoring it 0 because the game is simply not worth the price of admission. I have never seen a game with worse stability than this one. Three weeks after release, the game has memory leaks and unoptimized code that make 'normal' matches almost impossible to finish on my eight-core processor. The developer hassled with Steam for months about putting the 'finished' game up for a release date, and he has missed that date by years. Please do not reward this developer for trying to pull a wool over your eyes.…Expand

"this game has potential but..."
It's still in beta form, terrible user interface, very poor tutorial, micromanagment, no explanation of Hotkeys, etc. I have no idea why so many give it such a high score. Maybe it will be patched into a good game, but it still needs work.

Pros:
• Combat is good.
• Designing a ship is fun initially.
• AI uses your own designs against you.
• Actively involved developer.
• Lots of potential down the road.
• Graphics and sound are good.
Cons:
• Exploration is uninspired.
• Buggy/late game frame rate issues.
• Not polished.
• Major notifications are lacking. (ie: when planets are idle, ships reaching destination,Pros:
• Combat is good.
• Designing a ship is fun initially.
• AI uses your own designs against you.
• Actively involved developer.
• Lots of potential down the road.
• Graphics and sound are good.
Cons:
• Exploration is uninspired.
• Buggy/late game frame rate issues.
• Not polished.
• Major notifications are lacking. (ie: when planets are idle, ships reaching destination, etc)
• No rally point for ship building.
• Needs more research.
• Ship design becomes tedious.
• Low replayability.
Overall:
Rather bland 4X game but has lots of potential especially from modders. Although the developer is active it’s still a small team. There is some concern that significant needed improvements might take a while to be released. Hold off for now but keep an eye on this one. Time will tell.…Expand

Before you buy this ignore all the positive spam reviews made by fanboys and relatives of the developer, this is a beta, overpriced game full of bugs that wants to fool you that it was made by a professional studio.
Just for the record, at it's launch the game sells with 30 euro You can buy a 10x better game with half of that money (endless space or sins of a solar empire) It's like aBefore you buy this ignore all the positive spam reviews made by fanboys and relatives of the developer, this is a beta, overpriced game full of bugs that wants to fool you that it was made by a professional studio.
Just for the record, at it's launch the game sells with 30 euro You can buy a 10x better game with half of that money (endless space or sins of a solar empire) It's like a lite, copied version of those games, but with less than half of the options and content.…Expand

The game has potential, and is quite enjoyable, but I'm giving this a bad rating because the game has been 'released' in an unfinished state. A lot of the issues I thought would be ironed out by 'release' are still in the game, including quests that don't actually work, strange AI that gives up after a while, the game juddering in lategame, and a clunky UI.

I know it's coded by one guyThe game has potential, and is quite enjoyable, but I'm giving this a bad rating because the game has been 'released' in an unfinished state. A lot of the issues I thought would be ironed out by 'release' are still in the game, including quests that don't actually work, strange AI that gives up after a while, the game juddering in lategame, and a clunky UI.

I know it's coded by one guy and I'm impressed but you can't just release an unfinished game.…Expand

(Sorry for my English. I am not a native speaker).
!Metacritics deleting negative user reviews! Save your review!
An unfinished and extremely bugged game like Stardrive deserves so bad raiting! We can't play this game!!!
Don't buy Star Drive! This 1.07B release version is an early alpha version! After mid game: extreme fps drop and you can't finish a game, Game crashes and freezes. AI(Sorry for my English. I am not a native speaker).
!Metacritics deleting negative user reviews! Save your review!
An unfinished and extremely bugged game like Stardrive deserves so bad raiting! We can't play this game!!!

Don't buy Star Drive! This 1.07B release version is an early alpha version! After mid game: extreme fps drop and you can't finish a game, Game crashes and freezes. AI is dumb and cheating (on hard/brutal). UI is absolutely awful and confusing. You can't even change graphic settings (only resolution). At this stage this game is absolutely unfinished.
There are two games that are 100 times better than Star Drive and have the same prize!!!!
1) Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion (Release 2012) this is a real-time strategy (like Homeworld). This game has very nice 3D graphic (10x time better than Star Drive will ever have). It has no bugs and runs smooth.
2) Endless Space (Release 2012) buy this game if you like turned based strategy. It has no bugs and runs smooth.
These two games are 100 times better than Star Drive. Compare these games with Star Drive and wait for PC Game Reviews (PC Magazines)! Wait for AMAZON Reviews!…Expand

Looking at all the previews, this was a highly anticipated game for me. The images looked awesome, the characters and ships had an awesome design and in general the customization options looked amazing.
It's amazing how every single point above could still be true on release and still the game is simply unplayable.
> You start the game and get immediately lost, there is no story and theLooking at all the previews, this was a highly anticipated game for me. The images looked awesome, the characters and ships had an awesome design and in general the customization options looked amazing.
It's amazing how every single point above could still be true on release and still the game is simply unplayable.
> You start the game and get immediately lost, there is no story and the tutorials suck. A couple of them have videos but the rest is running text.
> You eventually get past that and start you colony, the UI sucks. You can't control your ships effectively, it's hard to click them and you'll be lucky to even find your ships in the universe. Adding to that, there is no highlighting of your units or plants so good luck trying to understand what's going on.
> I'm one of the guys that likes to micromanage but it's practically impossible to do so in this game since you get overwhelmed I then found i had a couple of options to let the AI automatically build roads and send goods and population to my new colonies but that just simply turns off that part of the game, everything is created for you and you never need to look at it again. Your planets will build ships apparently randomly to fill some AI purpose which is an odd solution.
> Customizing your ship is nice but it has pointless components. Sometimes you build a great ship and then find you forgot to but enough power in it... or there is no ammo so it doesn't really fire...
> I also found some game mechanics were crap and should be removed, like you can control a single ship with WASD in a battle but it's so strange that you never will.
> Also in the middle of the game all my ships stopped moving suddenly, i thought there was a problem with the game, restarted and they were still all stopped... after a while i noticed a text on the screen saying Hyperspace Flux and came to the conclusion the developers added a random universe event that blocks the game for 5 minutes, how nice.
> You then start exploring and start your to want to fight. I had a perk with a better than average mega space ship, i gathered 5 more fighters and the first random neutral ship i find kills all my ships, because it has like a million shield points when i don't even know what shields are yet. These neutral guys exist randomly in a lot of systems and for some unknown reason are ultra hard to kill, they are not even players mind you, they are neutral ships roaming the universe randomly just to kill your game experience.
I got frustrated, created a fleet of 20 fighters and tried again, only to be decimated in under a minute by the same neutral ship.

At this point i decided the game wasn't polished and balanced enough to be playable and never picked it up again. What's sad is that with probably little effort and a couple of changed game mechanics this could be one of the years greatest hits in 4X strategy games.

Incomplete game and Dev has already moved on.. took our money from early access so he could fund his new game without finishing the multiplayer after it was already promised.

Wish this game had a map generater so I didnt have to play the same galaxy every time.
Pritty much all you do is set the computer to auto govern all your planets and just mass a large fleet and all the AI wantsIncomplete game and Dev has already moved on.. took our money from early access so he could fund his new game without finishing the multiplayer after it was already promised.

Wish this game had a map generater so I didnt have to play the same galaxy every time.

Pritty much all you do is set the computer to auto govern all your planets and just mass a large fleet and all the AI wants to be your friend. Can't be friends unless you already number 1 or 2 top player already so what's the point in alliances when I can already destroy the other AI players?

Game is pretty annoying at times also.. I spent a lot of time and resources to gain the friendship of another race just to lose it in a split second. I was invading a world with foot soldiers while bombing it from space and the AI just decided to colonize it while I was already attacking the planet and it declared hostility on me on the first auto attack that wasn't even in my control to stop.

Another annoying part of the game is the AI declares a planet theirs and for you to leave it alone even when its on the other side of the galaxy. Try building alliances when you need to expand and every ally you have is getting upset that your colonizing their intended planets!

After a few wins.. never went back since this is a dead game and wont ever receive multiplayer. I think this could have been a fun game if I had actual people to play with or against.…Expand

I can not understand the 9's and 10's being thrown out here. This game is unfinished and being sold as if ti is a AA title for USD$30. Unacceptable. Developer asks fans to come to metacritic and game the system.

Professional reviewers are afraid to touch it in fear of angering the fans.
This game as the concept and potential to be the best 4x space game ever. Poorly implemented UI,I can not understand the 9's and 10's being thrown out here. This game is unfinished and being sold as if ti is a AA title for USD$30. Unacceptable. Developer asks fans to come to metacritic and game the system.

Professional reviewers are afraid to touch it in fear of angering the fans.

This game as the concept and potential to be the best 4x space game ever. Poorly implemented UI, idiotic AI and rampant bugs make the game very difficult to play. Even the planetary elements stolen from Galactic Civilizations (which were likely stolen from other games) were not implemented well.

Perhaps in 6 months this game will achieve greatness. I expect that bugfixes and updates will cease as the general public realizes the game will never be finished and people stop buying the game.

I liken this game to a pyramid scheme. The early adopters are pumping it with their 9 and 10 ratings in the hopes more people will purchase it, keeping the development going as long a they can. I admit I was a sucker and fell for it.…Expand

This game just doesn't work. It tries to marry RTS with 4X aspects, and comes off as too complicated in RTS micromanaging aspects, and yet too simple to enjoy the 4X aspects due to the need for a short tech tree and reliance on AI control in order to maintain output. Reminds me of MOO3, in how it tries to do something new, but that something just doesn't work.

Ui needs lots of work, Game is buggy, research tec is boring as hell. The world seems bit dead to me, start was okay, but after that it dropped ball. Its shame that i wasted money on this game, even it was on the sale it was not worth the price.

This is an updated review of stardrive. I originally did a review in april 2013 and said, like many others, that this game had alot of potential. What happened is, the developer took the money and ran and never completed the game.

This means the promises made to people who paid $25 like me were never fulfilled. Worse, the end game is unplayable because of crippling memory problems.This is an updated review of stardrive. I originally did a review in april 2013 and said, like many others, that this game had alot of potential. What happened is, the developer took the money and ran and never completed the game.

This means the promises made to people who paid $25 like me were never fulfilled. Worse, the end game is unplayable because of crippling memory problems.

Never ever buy a zerosum game or anything related to this developer again. He should be shunned and banished from game making forever.…Expand

After finding the amount of high ratings on this site I had to write a review on this game. Simply put, it could have been great. The developer promised so many great things for the game as an early access supporter. When the game launched, it was really just a flop. It was really just the beta but with a higher price tag, and the developer decided that he would use your wasted $30.00 toAfter finding the amount of high ratings on this site I had to write a review on this game. Simply put, it could have been great. The developer promised so many great things for the game as an early access supporter. When the game launched, it was really just a flop. It was really just the beta but with a higher price tag, and the developer decided that he would use your wasted $30.00 to fund a sequel that had all of his features that he promised originally. Don't buy this game, don't support this developer, and go buy Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion. At least I can actually enjoy that game... One more note, I know that it was a single person developer, but that doesn't mean he can just stop supporting his games and make empty promises. Intrusion 2 was created by a single developer, and that game is extremely better than the mere 2 hours I put into the release of Stardrive. It took the single developer 3 years to create Intrusion 2. Why can't this developer have the same perseverance and drive that the Intrusion 2 developer has? Just because you don't like a product that you have created doesn't mean you have to abandon it and make a new game. Think about that the next time you want to disappoint people.…Expand

According to Steam the game has been released. According to the official website, it has not. And it really hasn't. It's a beta. The UI is a clusterf***k. It doesn't scale up with resolution well. You can't even pick a planet from a planet list. Everything is tiny. It's very hard to pick ships, because you can barely see them if you zoom out. The tutorial consists of few videos and bunchAccording to Steam the game has been released. According to the official website, it has not. And it really hasn't. It's a beta. The UI is a clusterf***k. It doesn't scale up with resolution well. You can't even pick a planet from a planet list. Everything is tiny. It's very hard to pick ships, because you can barely see them if you zoom out. The tutorial consists of few videos and bunch of text. I have to say music and art design of alien races are the most memorable part of this game. Everything else is unpolished, forgettable or just meh, because it's unfinished game. However, that's a huge achievement for a single guy developing the game. But is it worth $29? No. Maybe 6 months down the road, when it gets patched.…Collapse

Zero Sum Games has created a worthy addition to the 4X genre. What is more - modders are already creating more and more cool modifications for StarDrive. Ergonomics and gameplay rules should be more user-friendly, but the game itself is far from boring or tiresome. 4X fans will be pleased.

For your first and second time, StarDrive brings a refreshing experience resembling Master of Orion. However, as soon as you understand its basic rules, the game is gone like through a Black Hole. [Issue#232]